Gov. Andrew Cuomo responded on Tuesday to an investigation by New York State Attorney General Letitia James, rejecting her findings that he sexually harassed multiple current and former staffers, as well as women who did not work for his administration.
“I want you to know directly from me that I never touched anyone inappropriately or made inappropriate sexual advances,” he said in a taped video statement. “That is just not who I am and that’s not who I have ever been. I welcome the opportunity for a full and fair review before a judge and a jury, because this just did not happen.”
The report detailed, for the first time, allegations that Cuomo sexually harassed a female state trooper on his security detail. It said that the governor ran his hand or fingers across her stomach and her back, kissed her on the cheek, asked for her help in finding a girlfriend and asked why she didn’t wear a dress.
He explained that he’s been physically embracing people his whole life, that his mother and father, former Gov. Mario Cuomo, had done the same and that the gesture was meant to “convey warmth.”
In his taped response, Cuomo apologized to two accusers— one unnamed — and the other, former aide Charlotte Bennett, who said the governor asked if she was open to sex with an older man after she confided in him that she had been a victim of sexual assault.
The governor's attorney also released a position paper rebutting points of the investigation report and saying that it ignored some of his testimony.
"The investigators have directed an utterly biased investigation and willfully ignored evidence inconsistent with the narrative they have sought to weave form the outset. In coming to their conclusion, they ignored the Governor’s testimony and substantial corroborating evidence, and were not candid about that fact at a press conference during
which they announced their findings, " the position paper from his attorney said.
Position Statement of Governor Cuomo by WBFO on Scribd
